Europe seriously needs to find ways to stop being so independant on Russia's gas. It's bullshit that we can't do more than just say angry words because we don't wanna be gasless. The news said we'd be fine, but countries like Italy might get in trouble if Russia closes the gas tap.

I think you mean 'dependent' here?

I'd heard a suggestion that the U.S. could release 500,000 barrels of oil per day into the market from our oil reserves in Texas and Louisiana in order to severely hurt Russia's economy. There are almost 700 million barrels in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve right now (http://www.spr.doe.gov/dir/dir.html), so we could do that for a couple of months without really putting a major dent into it.

Thanks, my English fails me sometimes.

Interesting. We also have oil from our coast and who knows, Saudi Arabia and Brunei might jump in.

While hyperbolic and fun to say, it sounds like what she's actually saying is that decisions made by his administration to enter two wars at the same time from which we have yet to be able to extricate ourselves have placed constraints on our ability to respond to other global and domestic situations. Despite being less partisan, doesn't that seem fairly rational? She even has the gall to suggest that if we hope to avoid the costs of fighting two wars at the same time in the future that we should learn from and understand what really happened in our history.

Personally, I think that sounds like witchcraft._________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

Isn't it American military doctrine that dictates the US Military should at all times be strong/ready enough to be able to fight 2 multi-front wars simultaneously?_________________The Thirties dreamed white marble and slipstream chrome, immortal crystal and burnished bronze, but the rockets on the covers of the Gernsback pulps had fallen on London in the dead of night, screaming. - William Gibson, The Gernsback Continuum

I would think that kind of goes out the window when the other country involved is a nuclear power with probably the world's second-most powerful military and a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Even if the US really wanted to, there's just not much they can do about Ukraine.

Fascist ukranian army resistance fascistly resists russian army, meets them completely unarmed (like fascists would!) and in a fascist display of fascist unarmed resistance march towards the russian army even as shots are being fired over their heads. Like fascists.

/If my tongue were planted any further in my cheek, I would violate the pauli exclusion principle._________________"No, but evil is still being --Is having reason-- Being reasonable! Mousie understands? Is always being reason. Is punishing world for not being... Like in head. Is always reason. World should be different, is reason."
-Ed, from Digger

Fascist ukranian army resistance fascistly resists russian army, meets them completely unarmed (like fascists would!) and in a fascist display of fascist unarmed resistance march towards the russian army even as shots are being fired over their heads. Like fascists.

/If my tongue were planted any further in my cheek, I would violate the pauli exclusion principle.

Isn't it American military doctrine that dictates the US Military should at all times be strong/ready enough to be able to fight 2 multi-front wars simultaneously?

and win them, too! that was the plan, anyway...of course, the whole iraq-afghanistan thing sorta showed up the problems with that (and i have to believe has at least as much to do with how putin views the u.s. as the fact that obama got syria to dispose of chemical weapons without sending in troops and acting all tough).

of course, that's one of the reasons the republicans are in hysterics about chuck hagel's suggestion we cut back the military a bit: how can we fight multiple wars at once if we cut back our military even though out military spending will still be far and away higher than anyone else's?_________________aka: neverscared!
a flux of vibrant matter

For the last few years, it has become something like conventional knowledge in Moscow journalistic circles that Putin was no longer getting good information, that he was surrounded by yes-men who created for him a parallel informational universe. "They're beginning to believe their own propaganda," Gleb Pavlovsky told me when I was in Moscow in December. Pavlovsky had been a close advisor to the early Putin, helping him win his first presidential election in 2000. (When, in 2011, Putin decided to return for a third term as president, Pavlovsky declared the old Putin dead.)

hmmm. that worked out so well for bush in the iraq invasion._________________aka: neverscared!
a flux of vibrant matter

Fascist ukranian army resistance fascistly resists russian army, meets them completely unarmed (like fascists would!) and in a fascist display of fascist unarmed resistance march towards the russian army even as shots are being fired over their heads. Like fascists.

/If my tongue were planted any further in my cheek, I would violate the pauli exclusion principle.

To be fair, I don't know anyone who is calling the Ukrainian military fascist. The Ukrainian military has pretty much kept it's nose out of the whole affair.

Now, some of the protesters, you might call fascist. And on both sides of the protest, too.

Meanwhile, Poland is knuckling down._________________The Thirties dreamed white marble and slipstream chrome, immortal crystal and burnished bronze, but the rockets on the covers of the Gernsback pulps had fallen on London in the dead of night, screaming. - William Gibson, The Gernsback Continuum

Fascist ukranian army resistance fascistly resists russian army, meets them completely unarmed (like fascists would!) and in a fascist display of fascist unarmed resistance march towards the russian army even as shots are being fired over their heads. Like fascists.

/If my tongue were planted any further in my cheek, I would violate the pauli exclusion principle.

If this is aimed at me, for the record, I Think Svoboda are fascists. I don't think the entire Ukrainian government, let alone the Ukrainian army, are fascists. Also I know for a fact there have been Russian neo-nazis active in Ukraine before. So yeah, like fritterdonut said, you'll find fascists on both sides here.

Curious to see the Ukrainian troops march behind a hammer and sickle flag though, what does it signify in this instance?_________________A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want? ~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Fascist ukranian army resistance fascistly resists russian army, meets them completely unarmed (like fascists would!) and in a fascist display of fascist unarmed resistance march towards the russian army even as shots are being fired over their heads. Like fascists.

/If my tongue were planted any further in my cheek, I would violate the pauli exclusion principle.

If this is aimed at me, for the record, I Think Svoboda are fascists. I don't think the entire Ukrainian government, let alone the Ukrainian army, are fascists. Also I know for a fact there have been Russian neo-nazis active in Ukraine before. So yeah, like fritterdonut said, you'll find fascists on both sides here.

Curious to see the Ukrainian troops march behind a hammer and sickle flag though, what does it signify in this instance?

Fair enough, and if I remember something I read somewhere, the Hammer and Sickle flag is harkening back to some shared fighting they did during WW2 against the Nazi's (And there may have been some particular heroics from that Ukranian unit?). I'm hazy on the details._________________"No, but evil is still being --Is having reason-- Being reasonable! Mousie understands? Is always being reason. Is punishing world for not being... Like in head. Is always reason. World should be different, is reason."
-Ed, from Digger

Fascist ukranian army resistance fascistly resists russian army, meets them completely unarmed (like fascists would!) and in a fascist display of fascist unarmed resistance march towards the russian army even as shots are being fired over their heads. Like fascists.

/If my tongue were planted any further in my cheek, I would violate the pauli exclusion principle.

If this is aimed at me, for the record, I Think Svoboda are fascists. I don't think the entire Ukrainian government, let alone the Ukrainian army, are fascists. Also I know for a fact there have been Russian neo-nazis active in Ukraine before. So yeah, like fritterdonut said, you'll find fascists on both sides here.

Curious to see the Ukrainian troops march behind a hammer and sickle flag though, what does it signify in this instance?

Fair enough, and if I remember something I read somewhere, the Hammer and Sickle flag is harkening back to some shared fighting they did during WW2 against the Nazi's (And there may have been some particular heroics from that Ukranian unit?). I'm hazy on the details.

Speaking of that event though, here's an interesting take from a Russian leftwing academic:
Boris Kagarlitsky: ‘Polite intervention’ and the Ukrainian uprising_________________A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want? ~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray